Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Mission CISD campus ratings show improvement

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has released its ratings for schools and school districts under the state accountability system. According to the TEA, Mission CISD (Consolidated Independent School District) has two campuses that have earned the highest rating of exemplary for the first time under the current accountability system. Seven campuses have earned a rating of recognized with nine earning an academically acceptable rating.Mission CISD Superintendent Oscar Rodriguez, Jr. said he was very pleased with the progress being made. The TEA continues to raise the bar in many areas, including TAKS passing rates, Rodriguez said. So for us to have campuses now earning an exemplary rating is quite an accomplishment. We are prepared to continue improvements throughout the district to make sure we build on the momentum being created.

The campuses earning an exemplary rating are Cavazos Elementary and Mims Elementary Schools. District officials are hoping to add one more to this list when the TEA makes their final ratings announcement in October. We think certain aspects of data used for the recognized rating given to Midkiff Elementary School need to be addressed by the TEA, said Rodriguez. We are preparing an appeal of their rating with the hopes that it will be raised to exemplary.

Not only did ratings improve at Cavazos and Mims Elementary Schools, but so did the rating for Cantu Elementary School which earned a recognized rating this year.

The current state accountability system is based on the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) and includes the high school completion rate and the 7-8 grade annual dropout rate. For each major area, the state not only looks at figures for the student population as a whole, but also looks at the following sub-groups: Hispanic, African-American, White, Economically Disadvantaged. Test score subjects included in the ratings system are Reading, Writing, Math, Science and Social Studies.

Mission CISD received a rating of academically acceptable.To be considered exemplary a district/campus needs: TAKS passing rates of at least 90% in all subjects tested and for the all-student group and subgroups, SDAA (State Developed Alternative Assessment) passing rate of at least 90%, high school completion rate of at least 95%, 7-8 grade dropout rate of 0.2% or better.

To be considered recognized, a district/campus needs: TAKS passing rates of at least 70% in all subjects tested and for the all-student group and subgroups, SDAA passing rate of at least 70%, high school completion rate of at least 85%, 7-8 grade dropout rate of 0.7% or better. A district can also meet the criteria for a recognized rating by meeting a level of required improvement for the base indicators.

To be considered acceptable, a district/campus needs: TAKS passing rates of at least 60% in Reading/English Language Arts, Writing and Social Studies; TAKS passing rates of at least 40% on math; TAKS passing rates of at least 35% on science; SDAA passing rates of at least 50%; high school completion rate of at least 75%; and a 7-8 grade dropout rate of 1% or better. A district can also meet the criteria for an acceptable rating by meeting a level of required improvement for the base indicators.